


Before The Storm

by Skye_Willows



Series: Down The Rabbit Hole [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Background marriage, Connor & Niles Are Twins, Depictions of previous serious illness, Family Fluff, Foreshadowing, Gavin & Chloe are siblings, Hybrid!Gavin, M/M, reverse au, thief!Gavin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27290323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skye_Willows/pseuds/Skye_Willows
Summary: After the close shave with Zlatko's men, Gavin and Niles take some time out to visit Gavin's sister, just as he'd promised in return for her help.While the break is welcome and new relationships are forged, events are set in motion that the White Rabbit might not be able escape from...and may bring down his beloved detective with him.
Relationships: Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900, Hank Anderson/Connor, Original Chloe | RT600 & Gavin Reed, Original Chloe | RT600/Elijah Kamski, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Down The Rabbit Hole [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1447786
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Before The Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I'm back.
> 
> So, the original plan for this entry wasn't working out, so this and the next part have been reworked slightly. Parts 7 and 8 will be unchanged, but the events leading up to it have been modified a little. 
> 
> Hope this was worth the wait! Enjoy!

“I’ve done the whole ‘meet the parents’ thing before, it’s not even as if this is the first time meeting your sister. Why the hell am I so nervous ?”

A snort from Gavin was all the answer Niles needed, but the hybrid decided that it would probably be best to reassure his boyfriend with some words. “Because unlike most of the world, you actually know what Chloe is like? Plus, last time you were here a detective hunting the White Rabbit – rather than her older brother’s long term boyfriend.”

Niles smiled affectionately at Gavin as he chuckled. “I get the feeling this would be a lot easier if I was only the second of those options, rather than still being the first too.”

Gavin laughed. “If you can even call it ‘hunting’. Just as well I know you actually take other perps seriously, otherwise I’d be worried for Detroit.”

“I take you seriously, thank you very much. I’m just more serious about making sure there’s nothing left behind which reveals our identities.” Gavin hummed at that one as the hybrid’s car continued to drive them onwards, but the banter was helping to relax Niles somewhat.

When Gavin had first mentioned going to his childhood summer house for a break, Niles had thought it was a heads up that his thief would be quiet for a week. What he hadn’t expected was for Gavin to not only extend the invitation to go with him, but also that Chloe and Elijah wanted Niles there.

Given how undecided Niles felt about his beloved’s sibling and her long term partner, he wasn’t sure being under the same roof as them for a week was the best plan – however, Gavin had eventually convinced him that it was a good idea. If nothing else, Gavin had told Niles that Chloe wanted to thank him personally for all that the detective had done in helping to protect her older sibling.

Eventually, Niles decided the potential benefits of going outweighed the risks. Perhaps he could even put to bed some of his own warring thoughts around Chloe if he got to know her a little more, rather than just that first brief meeting and her subsequent actions that he’d seen. Gavin was still fiercely devoted to his little sister after all, and Niles knew Gavin well enough by now to be aware that his beloved would have a much more strained relationship with her should she truly be a ‘bad’ person.

They’d always be heavily entwined with how Chloe almost redefined the natural order of the world to give Gavin a chance at life again, but that didn’t mean that they had to still be as close as they were.

Niles’ thoughts were interrupted by Gavin’s hand coming to rest on his own, which causes the detective to blink back to the present. “Hey, she’s not **that** scary,” Gavin started, only to stop and laugh at Niles’ raised eyebrow. “Okay, fine. I know that Chloe probably is fuckign scary to almost everyone, but you don’t have to worry about her. She likes you and she knows what you’ve done in helping me with my stealing. That puts you pretty damn high in her estimations.”

“That’s somewhat reassuring,” Niles breathed out in relief as he reached for Gavin’s hand. “Sorry, I’m somewhat surprised myself at my reaction to this. I knew I’d be apprehensive, but not **this** much.”

“Don’t worry, I think you’ll see a really different side of Chlo and Eli while we’re here. She’s coming off the grid for the week too, this is her first vacation in I don’t know how long, so I think you’ll get to know my sister better. Right now all you know is the Chloe Kamski that the world does, not the person beneath it.”

Niles finally relaxed a little more and leant over to hiss his boyfriend soundly, taking comfort in Gavin’s eays presence. Innocent moments like this were just what they both needed given their crazy lifestyle, and it would be nice to unwind as just two men without the burden of their jobs for a week.

Despite the original plan for Gavin to lay low after provoking Zlatko, Niles’ thief had once again put himself right in the firing line after it turned out that Amanda’s prediction had proven to be wrong. As much as Zlatko was pissed at Gavin for foiling his plan, Zlatko was adamant that someone within the DPD had warned the thief of the trap that was waiting for him.

Gang crime had been at its highest for almost twenty years and there had been more than a few close shaves for many of the members of the DPD, including some of those on Connor and Niles’ teams.

While en route to one of their crime scenes after probably the smallest heist tht Gavin had carried out in a while, all four cars of Niles’ team had been caught in a shootout. Almost everyone came out of it unscathed, but Simon had taken a bullet to the stomach and Niles’ face still showed remnants of his scars from when the window of his car was shot out. It was just as well that Amanda had ordered everyone in the field to be wearing vests until things had settled down, otherwise it would have been far worse.

Niles’ team had only been caught in one serious incident, but Connor’s squad had fared far worse. A meeting with an informant had turned out to be a carefully laid trap that had resulted in two of Connor’s team dead, and very nearly himself with it. The only reason Niles’ twin had survived was because Hank had put himself in the firing line and taken three bullets to his chassis.

At least the damage to him was repairable, but the trauma from such a shootout wasn’t to be dismissed that easily. With everything having come within a hair’s breadth of going so wrong, the pair had finally come clean to Amanda about their engagement and plans to get married – and even went off to do it during their mandatory two weeks off while they got their psych evals done.

Seeing everyone’s reactions upon their return had brightened the dark mood that had been in the bullpen for those weeks since losing some of their own, and they’d even managed to stay together as partners since, officially, the law didn’t recognise Connor and Hank as married yet. Human-android marriage hadn’t been legalised, which meant there was no formal basis for them to be split up.

What it had meant, however, was that Gavin was trying his best to distract attention away from the DPD and provoke Zlatko’s anger onto him, after seeing what had so nearly happened to Niles, his family and friends.

Niles didn’t agree with Gavin’s idea to pull off more flash heists for lower gain but more attention, but it had undoubtedly helped on the streets. There had only been two more ambushes since Gavin had been drawing attention, and they were a few weeks apart. Things were getting more manageable, even if they were still stressful. Everyone had come to the realisation that it was going to be like this for a while.

In an effort to shield her task force teams, Amanda had expanded them to bring in more officers to do the work out in the field while the core units stayed in the precinct. After their recent close shaves no-one on Connor nor Niles’ teams had many complaints until things eased off, and it allowed for all of them to go through some much needed therapy and recovery. Niles was grateful that he’d been using an external therapist for years and had convinced Amanda that he didn’t need the DPD one too.

There was no way he could have kept all of his swirling thoughts inside, and the last thing he wanted to do was out himself by accident to someone and put them in the terrible position of keeping that secret. For now, it was his cross to bear.

Besides, he had his own escape in the form of Gavin. So long as his thief was safe, the rest would come together in time.

He hoped.

“Hey, I meant to ask – what are the rest of your team during while you’re off? Who’s leading things?” Gavin questioned as the car started up the long woodland drive which led to the summer house.

“Markus is making sure everyone is safe, though nobody will be going back into the field for a while yet. All we’re doing is analysing the evidence brought back, but it’s easy to tell that the officers out there don’t have the faintest idea where to pick up the more subtle clues. There’s been more thana few times that we wished we could take a look at the scenes again for anything you’ve left behind, but it’s too dangerous. At least Amanda is standing her ground against the higher ups and making her position very clear,” Niles told him.

“Gotta say, I’ve a lot of time for your Captain,” Gavin smiled. “From what you told me, she had no qualms about standing up to Zlatko and she gives a damn about the people under her command. There aren’t many out that like that.”

“We’re all very fortunate,” Niles laughed. “Amanda’s a very hard task master, but you won’t find a better supporter if you need anything. If she can find a way to do something, she’ll do it. There’s a reason we’re all so close knit within Central, and it’s mostly down to her. She hand picks everyone that comes into her precinct but it’s not just a case of who is the best at their work. She often has a spot in mind for each person she enlists to make sure it keeps the dynamics of the teams going. Something like that makes a huge difference.

“Plus, I think I’ll always have a soft spot for her given what she’s been willing to do for both Connor and Hank. I can’t think of many others that would bend the rules to such an extent as to keep a married couple as partners, but she knows they work best together,” the detective finished with a smile.

Gavin grinned. “How weird is it to think of those two as married, honestly? It’s only been, what, 6 weeks at this point?”

“It’ll be 6 weeks tomorrow. I don’t think it’s really sank in for them yet either, but I’m glad to see them so happy. Chris has taken a particular interest in their new marriage and is trying to expedite the marriage laws. I’ll be highly intrigued to see where those go,” Niles pondered, but his attention was only half on the conversation now. He’d never driven this deep into this particular forest, and the view of the sunlight breaking through the trees was distracting him somewhat.

He only half noticed Gavin’s laugh from the side, but he did snap back to attention when the hybrid started speaking again. “It’s pretty damn nice out here. This was our parent’s log cabin from when Chlo and I were growing up,” he said warmly. “After Chloe earned some of her fortune she did it up, keeping the external look while making it a lot more spacious and adding some underground floors. I…actually spent a lot of time here.”

The sad tone in Gavin’s voice had Niles tune into the conversation fully. “After my first bout of osteonecrosis, I couldn’t really do much,” he confessed. “Our parents weren’t rich, they could barely afford the payments on our tiny house. Me being in a wheelchair was really hard as I could barely fit through most of the doorways. In the end, they moved me up here with some carers cause I could at least move around, but I hated it. I was away from my parents, friends, Chloe…Those first couple of years in the cabin was miserable.”

Gavin leant back in his seat and closed his eyes as he remembered more. “Apparently Chloe was being severely temperamental and giving my parents a lot of trouble since she didn’t get to see my much. They came up every weekend and brought Chloe with them, but she and I were close from when she was born. It hurt both of us a lot to be separated, and in the end they sold the house to come live here too. It was a much longer commute for my parents, but they were willing to make the change so that I could be part of the family again.”

He then turned to Niles with a sad smile. “It was fine until my second striking of that damn disease. That time it almost killed me and left me a total paraplegic. Chloe…it broke her, honestly. What little of her innocence was gone and she was determined to find a way to ‘fix me’ as she used to say. It’s funny how that singlemindedness ended up with where we are now…

“Sorry, didn’t mean to ramble. I’ve just got a lot of memories about this place,” Gavin apologised but Niles shook his head, enraptured by the tale.

“No, please continue. I want to know more,” Niles smiled. “Let me know more about you two. I came into the story so late that I feel I’m missing a lot of the most crucial pieces. It might help me to learn more about where I fit in now if I can understand your depth of relationship better.”

Gavin smiled tightly and kissed Niles slowly. “I might manage to tell you about half of it before we get there.”

* * *

Niles thought he had at least some idea of the complex relationship between Gavin and Chloe before, but he hadn’t really the faintest clue until hearing it from his beloved. Learning how Gavin had been left so crippled that he was on life support and needing twenty four hour care was heart breaking, as well as hearing how his parents had no choice but to send him to Haven since Gavin couldn’t get the care he needed at the cabin. It was too far out for any emergencies, let alone having a severe lack of necessary equipment that meant Gavin couldn’t get the care he needed…they didn’t really have much of a choice.

What that had led to was Chloe being separated from her brother again, and this time it was a lot more traumatic since he’d been left so frail.

Now that he was hearing the other side of the story, of the emotional fallout which led to Chloe creating thirium and trying to find a legal method to use it to treat Gavin…suddenly Niled found that he had a lot of respect for the woman. He was still absolutely terrified of her, but lerning about how she channelled all of her knowledge and drive into saving her brother was quite humbling.

It also explained so much more about how they’d come to where they were now.

Chloe would never disagree with Gavin trying to fund Haven, it was somewhere that was very dear to both of them, but his grand plan on acquiring the money had definitely complicated their relationship. It seemed that being stubborn and steadfast on a course was a family trait though, cause Gavin didn’t give up on trying to find a way. Once it became evident that she wasn’t going to dissuade him, however, Chloe had instead tried everything to make his new day job less dangerous and risky.

Niles would never agree with some of her methods, but he understood them – and her – a lot more now.

Unfortuantely he never got the chance to learn more about Elijah, as they’d pulled up to the cabin before Gavin had the opportunity to explain. The EJ100 was waiting for them outside, however, and he looked so unerringly human that Niles never would have been able to tell the difference had he not know differently. It was even weirder to see the android with glasses, artificial stubble and long, loose hair. He was so different from last time – and now, weirdly, Niles could see how heavily he was based on Gavin.

Strangely, were you to look at them from the outside, one would think that Gavin and Elijah were the ones related by blood, not Gavin and Chloe. If anything, that would help with their cover more.

Elijah gave the pair a slight smile as Gavin and Niles emerged from the car. “And here Chloe and I wondered whether the detective would manage to make you turn up on time. Apparently you’re still late to everything,” the android taunted as Gavin pulled out the suitcases for the week from the trunk.

“Go spin on one, Eli, I can be on time,” Gavin snarked, but Niles wasn’t going to elt that opportunity slide.

“Only when on the job – you’re useless at home,” the detective chimed, which had Elijah chuckling and Gavin flipping him off.

“Listen, when I’m off duty I don’t need to be anywhere more of the time, so I can chill the fuck out. It doesn’t have life or death consequences there,” Gavin huffed before turning back to Elijah. “Are you here just to taunt, or are you gonna be helping us inside?”

“Oh no, I’m just here to mock. You know where the ground floor living room is, we’ll see you there.” With that the android gave a sarcastic wave before heading back inside.

Gavin huffed as he shifted the suitcases. “Fucking ass, I never thought he’d be such a sassy motherfucker when he woke up. Ni, you able to grab your case? We can drop these off in the hallway, then meet up with Chloe before we take them downstairs later. Unless you want to change or anything?”

Niles could see that Gavin was a little nervous now, it seemed that the magnitude of the situation finally caught up to him, while oddly that small interaction with Elijah had eased Niles’ slightly. “I’m fine, but I think we should maybe take them downstairs so that we can both unwind. We’re both a little frazzled by the looks of it,” he picked up astutely.

“Yeah, dunno why but I just suddenly had the reality slam home for me too.” Gavin then blushed and let out a big sigh. “I’m 36 years old and this is the first time that anyone I’ve had a romantic partner has met my family. Kinda sturck me as as a little sad, but at the same time…I don’t think anyone else I’ve been with has ever been worth it. Learning who I am, my past, my family- You’re the first person ever to know the whole picture, Ni. Maybe I’m just getting ahead of myself in what that all means.”

Rather than be overwhelmed himself, Niles just smiled at Gavin and brought him in for a slow kiss. It was a small grounding that they both needed. “Not at all, love, I don’t think you’re getting ahead of yourself at all. We both know that this is a long term relationship, otherwise we would have abandoned this a long time ago.

“To be honest, I think we both had an inkling from the start that we might be here. Otherwise, why would we have ever taken the chance to be together? A theif revealing himself to the man investigating him, and a detective who is deliberately throwing away an opportunity to bring in DPD’s Most Wanted? It’s the sort of thing that would break most, but instead it’s been the making of us. Really, I don’t think that me being the first person you’ve brought here is strange at all…though it does make me feel very humble and fortunate.”

Niles succeeded in calm Gavin down, and the pair pulled back with matching smiles. “You’ve got a point,” Gavin chuckled while looking to window, staring hard at the camera mounted on the outside. “C’mon, I’m sure Chlo’s already had plenty of a show with watching us be a couple of sappy bastards out here. Shall we?”

* * *

Contrary to what Niles feared and half expected, the week at the cabin went incredibly well.

Chloe was like night and day from before, and Niles realised that Gavin had been right about Chloe also letting her guard down while they escaped from their everyday lives. She was snarky, just like her brother, and her sharp wit had Niles laughing more than once. Within a couple of days he was even feeling brave enough to throw of few jokes of his own into the mix, which seemingly amused Chloe all the more.

Elijah was a lot more reserved: though he did get involved in some of the discussions when the other three ate. Most of the time, however, he was carefully blending into the background while reading a book or magazine. Gavin explained that Elijah had always been like that, the android had always been quiet and kept to himself a lot, but Gavin suspected it was due to a combination of factors. One, he was just quiet, and two, the more silent but supportive company was what Chloe needed at home.

The EJ100 did join in more as the week went on, apparently realising that no-one was going to pester him if he didn’t want to become part of the main group, and once that happened Chloe brightened considerably. It gave Niles a careful insight into how the world’s most powerful woman was behind the scenes, and he realised that Elijah was very much her support network now that Gavin wasn’t there all the time. Gavin managed to start a few conversations with the android, but they never last for very long.

It was actually really strange, watching the pair interact with what seemed to be a weight between them.

Elijah was close to both of them – Niles realised that Elijah and Gavin had bonded while Gavin was learning to use his body again after all of his implants were added – and thus felt a little like the middle man. He wanted to support Gavin, but his ultimate loyalty would always be to Chloe. Still, he tried to give Gavin any support that the hybrid needed, and was often undisclosed surveillance for if Gavin was on a heist.

That time spent with them made Niles feel a lot better about the future. As fraught as it was, Gavin had his family there for if he needed them. It lifted some of the weight off his shoulder.

On their final night, Niles was outside smoking when he heard the door open. Wordlessly, Chloe wandered next to him and the detective offered her a cigarette plus a light. She smiled at him in gratitude and once she was lit up, joined Niles in leaning against the wooden walls to smoke. “You know, when I suggested to Gavin that he bring you along when we met up, I honestly didn’t think you would come,” she admitted, which had Niles laughing quietly.

“I very nearly didn’t. To be quite frank, you scare the shit out of me, Chloe, but I wasn’t sure whether it would be safe for me to refuse.”

Chloe just giggled, which Niles took as a good sign. There were different degrees of amusement with Chloe, he’d discovered. That laugh meant that she was relaxed and earnest, it was something she did a lot around her brother. “I wouldn’t have been offended had you declined, I could understand the pressure given the threat which lingers from before, but I am glad that you came. Learning who you are has been a surprisingly delightful endeavour.”

“In that case, I’m glad I’ve amused you and piqued your interest,” Niles snarked, snorting when Chloe deliberately let loose a cloud of smoke in his face.

“It figures that you’re just as sassy as Gavin. I’m glad that someone is willing to give him as good back and keep him in line.”

Niles smiled warmly. “Our verbal sparring session are mostly kept to the field, but they are highly enjoyable. It’s odd how different sides of our relationship manifest depending on which part we are playing.”

He could see how much that statement resonated with Chloe and she turned to Niles with a more serious expression. “There’s something that I feel I need to say – it probably won’t come across as complimentary, but please bear with me until I am done,” she started. Niles raised an eyebrow in intrigue, but nodded for her to go on.

“When you first came here looking for Gavin, I was ready to pull a gun out and shoot you in the face,” she admitted. “You were an immense danger to my brother, held the power to destroy everything that he had been doing. At first I wondered why he would be so stupid as to show himself, but it was when you told me about him and what you knew, that I realised something had sparked between you. Sending you to Haven was as much a risk as it was a test to see whether you were someone worthy of Gavin.

“Imagine my surprise when I learned from Elijah that you were consciously helping him to catch Eric, to clear Gavin’s name,” she smiled slightly. “After that debacle was over I asked Gavin why he decided to show himself to you, and even he admitted he didn’t know when it changed from a game to a need to see you. My brother had already fallen for you hard, but I was still terrified that you were going to realise the gravity of the situation and run when the going got tough.”

Now the smile grew to become something more genuine. “Imagine my surprise when he later told me about the deal you turned down from Zlatko to bring him in. A lifetime of ease and nothing to want for…and yet you chose to cross one of the most dangerous men in Detroit to protect a wanted criminal. It had the potential to destroy your whole life on multiple fronts. I’ve always wanted to ask why?”

Well, Niles wasn’t expecting to be thrown on the spot like this. At least the answer was an easy one, as he’d thought on the limits of what he would and wouldn’t do for Gavin a lot.

“I could take the easy way out and say it’s because you scare me a lot more than Zlatko…” Niles waited for the slightly upturn in Chloe’s expression, having realised over the past few days that she was actually a fan of dark humour, so long as it was appropriate. He was confident that she would also have learned enough about Niles to realise that he was only being partially serious. Once she smiled, he went on. “Undoubtedly you are far more terrifying that that pompous ass and I wouldn’t dare cross you, but that isn’t the heart of it.”

Niles sighed and then turned his gaze to the sky briefly. “I’ll never forget that first day at Haven, seeing all of those sick kids there. It stuck like a rock in my throat, knowing just how much the system had abandoned them. It’s not something I’m oblivious too, I know the reputation cops have for being blind to real world issues, even exasperating them, and some of it is deserved.

“But to see the nightmare that all of those families faced through nothing more than a genetic lottery…it struck a chord with me. One of my oldest friends, his father is crippled and his insurance payments are frightening, it’s far beyond any money I could afford. To think that all of these families were facing the lack of safety net while knowing that it was all too likely their child was to get sick – something broke inside me. All I could wonder, while staring at them, was ‘how can we accept that just is the way things are’?”

His eyes then dropped back to Chloe. “Finding out that Gavin was once one of them, knowing that he was dedicating his whole life to trying to break that vicious cycle and at least make some amends to fixing this broken system…There was no way that I could ever dream of turning him. So many people’s dreams rest on him, and Gavin’s actually a big enough person to stand up to these greedy fucks that try to line their own pockets at the expense of others.”

Chloe was smiling in earnest now, but Niles was on a roll. He wasn’t going to stop there. “Gavin might be a criminal by the law, but he’s a hero to me. I’m willing to make that stand with him, and now being in love with Gavin makes me even more determined to see him succeed.”

Niles wasn’t sure what to expect from Chloe, but it wasn’t for a phone to be offered from her pocket. Staring at the object, he stayed at in stunned silence for a few moments before Chloe spoke again. “You know, the only person I’ve ever heard talk with such passion about this whole mess is Gavin,” she mused. “If I hadn’t already believed that you were one hundred percent dedicated to him, I do now.”

She then pointed at the phone. “That’s a secure line to Elijah and I. We’ve never given one of these to anyone before, but you’ve more than proven that you are worthy of it. If you ever need anything, let us know. Regardless of what it is or how difficult it seems, just dial the contact in there labelled ECK. Everything else in there is dummy numbers, but this is something that no-one can hack. We trust you, Niles, so please let us know if trouble is brewing.”

The showing of trust floored Niles and he gave her an emotional nod. “Thank you, Chloe. I swear to you I will.”

Satisfied with his answer, Chloe then leant out over the barrier around the side porch to stare at the stars overheard. “I need you to answer me honestly here, Niles. Have you and Gavin thought of how you’re going to get out of this? At some point the charade has to end, the White Rabbit must vanish. When that time comes, what consequence will there be to your career? Let alone how are you and Gavin going to make sure never to get into the crosshairs of the syndicate again.”

This wasn’t something they had discussed in detail yet, but Gavin had told Niles the bare bones of his plan. “Gavin’s looking to set up a final heist, eventually,” Niles said slowly. “He doesn’t know the details of it, but once it happens then he’s well aware it’ll probably doom the Rabbit. He’s been hitting these smaller sites to try and condense everything in the one area, then cripple the syndicate. That’s also when he’s going to give my brother the key to blowing the whole network apart. So while I might lost out on the Rabbit, we’ll be able to unravel the syndicate.”

Chloe’s eyebrow rose sceptically. “Gavin really thinks they’ll be silly enough to keep everything in the one spot? Or has he been leaving breadcrumbs to initiate a massive hack?”

“A combination of both, I think. The items of high monetary value are becoming less, and it seems that a few of the fringe sites are also being abandoned since they are easy targets. Something has changed about how they operate after their failed attempt to snare Gavin before. There’s not an established pattern or logic to what they are doing yet – my team is working on it, while Gavin and I are also trying to decipher it behind the scenes. Everything does seem to be gathering in more concentrated spots,” Niles told her, wondering what was going on in Chloe’s mind as she scowled.

“Leave this with me, I’ll make some people talk,” she decided while standing back to her full height and take one last drag from her cigarette. “Can I convince you to make sure Gavin doesn’t take any unnecessary risks until I’ve learned more?”

Niles nodded. “I’ll do my best, but you and I both know your brother. He’s stubborn when he wants to be.”

A snort and shake of the head was Chloe’s answer. “There is that, but I’m hoping if we **both** pester him, he might actually listen.”

She snubbed out the cigarette on a metal ashtray left outside and turned as if to leave, before something else seemed to come to mind. Niles was worried at the glint he saw in her eyes when she spun back. “I seem to remember Gavin saying that your brother recently got married to his partner. Hank, the HK800, correct?”

Now thoroughly confused, Niles nodded. “Yes, almost 7 weeks ago now. How come?”

Chloe smiled all too sweetly. “No reason, just wondered if marriage as something you’d ever thought about was all. At least you wouldn’t have the same problems since you wouldn’t be marrying an android.”

With that, she winked at Niles and then wandered back inside, never mind that she left behind a blushing mess of a detective with so many thoughts. He’d been completely titled sideways by that statement, and was busy trying to decipher it.

_Was that Chloe hinting at something?_

* * *

Going back to their day jobs was a thump back to earth with a bang, and Niles was instantly on edge when he wandered back into the precinct at the end of his week’s leave. He could see Hank and Connor standing at their desks, with the rest of Niles’ team hovering nearby as they listened to some heated arguments from within Amanda’s frosted glass. Uneasy at the tension in the atmosphere, Niles wandered across to the rest of his team.

“Please tell me that I’m seeing the tail end of a disaster and not the start of one?” he pleaded before nodding towards Simon. “Nice to see you back, Simon. How are the ribs?”

“Still tender, but what else can you expect after two of them being broken by the vest taking a bullet?” Simon joked. “I’m ready to be back though, I hate sitting on the side lines. I’m as much in the dark about this as you, this is my first day back too.”

Niles turned to Markus and was perturbed by the serious expression on his old friend’s face. “Markus, what’s going on? I’ve never seen Amanda lose her temper at anyone.” Before Markus could answer, the glass went back to transparent and Niles finally saw the source of her ire: one Special Agent Perkins and Clancy, standing there plain as day. “Oh fuck, what do those two want?”

Perkins wandered out of Amanda’s office first, the HK900 right behind him, and made a beeline towards Hank and Connor. Heated words were exchanged between them on the hush, and it made Niles’ stomach clench even more. What the hell was going on?

“Like fuck are you doing this!” Connor screamed, which caught everyone off guard. Perkins wasted no time in rebuffing him.

“I’d watch your temper, Lieutenant. You don’t want word to get back about you threatening a federal agent, do you? You’re already on thin ice after the assault charges against you and your twin in relation to me were dropped,” the agent sneered.

Hank now waded in with his own booming voice, which caught everyone just as unawares. “This is just petty revenge and you fuckin’ know it, assholes! This isn’t over!”

“Quite to the contrary, HK800, it is.” Perkins then sauntered away as Clancy stepped in the way to stop Hank following him, but the FBI agent came to a stop at Niles and his team.

“Well, this makes my life very easy. All of you are here,” he said in far too cheerful a voice. “I thought I would just inform all of you that, as of today, you’re all suspended pending investigation by Internal Affairs.”

“ ** _What?!_** What’s the meaning of this?” Niels demanded, his stomach freezing at the thought. Fuck, this was bad. What could have brought this on?”

Perkins smiled nastily at Niles. “How nice of you to ask, Detective Anderson. It’s my duty to inform you that everyone within your unit is being investigated for assisting Detroit’s Most Wanted, the White Rabbit.”

Niles’ whole body felt like it went leaden on the spot. How could anyone have made that connection? Who had seen or suspected anything? What proof was there? He and Gavin had been covering their tracks for months, they’d been so careful.

His phone went off in his pocket and Niles’ heart lurched into his throat at the snippet, realising that, suddenly, his team were in far more danger than he’d thought and had become pawns in a very dangerous game.

**[If I catch anyone who has been working with the Rabbit, I’ll tear every single one of you apart.**

**Z.]**

The timing was too coincidental. A threatening message from Zlatko just two days after Chloe had started ramping up pressure to find out more about the syndicate’s plans? She might have been trying to take the heat off Gavin, but she’d thrown Niles’ team under the bus instead.

…Chloe wasn’t one to make mistake like that – but something else struck Niles like lightning.

_The FBI suspends all of us just as Zlatko threatens to hurt anyone who is found to be working with Gavin? It can’t-_

**_Shit,_ ** _he’s got someone on the inside of the bureau. Someone in the FBI’s in on this whole thing._

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I'm a bitch for leaving it there. Since there's 3 parts to go, I'll let you know that this isn't the finale yet - we're just at the foundations for it.
> 
> Hope that all of you enjoyed that fic, and I'll see you all next time!


End file.
